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Future of rodeo questioned

The future of rodeo is being questioned after the death of a calf at a weekend event in Esperance

Tara De Landgrafft

The death of a steer at a rodeo over the weekend has sparked debate about the future of such events.

What's been described as a "freak accident" occurred on Saturday in Esperance, Western Australia during the steer wrestling event.

Veterinarian Dr Enoch Bergman was on duty at the event and made the decision to euthanase the animal when it was apparent that it's neck was broken.

He says the incident was extremely rare and he hopes it doesn't taint the sport's reputation.

"I think everyone, when I spoke to people afterwards, people were pretty empathic and sympathetic for the animal but I guess everyone that was there could tell that if was an accident, these things, as I say don't happen very often," he says.

"The goal of everyone there is to look after the welfare of those animals as best as we can."

He says the statistics prove just how rare this unfortunate event with US figures showing 0.005 of one per cent of cattle used in rodeo are injured.

"The Australia one, when they conducted a similar survey of Australian rodeos was about seven 100th's (of one per cent) of animals were injured and about half of those needed veterinary treatment, I couldn't find any mortality data so injuries are relatively rare."

"I believe we will still have a good event next year, and these events (death) are relatively, they are very rare," he says.

"We do everything we can to manage them, we responded, the committee responded immediately, the fellow who runs this, he says he's been rodeoing for 30 years, Brett and he says this is the first mortality he's ever seen at a rodeo."

"I think we're a bit shocked by it all, I guess it was just bad luck".